Tell you what,we are going to make a few more cuts to your budgets here and there but don't worry about anything as we have had a chat with our friends in Euro LaLaLand and they said you might be able to borrow some of their toys.

The Welfare Budget (excl Health & Education, btw) is currently approx £220bn pa - about 1/3 of total Govt expenditure at FY 2010/11 prices. According to the OBR, at any rate - Office for Budget Responsibility

Chop anything off the welfare budget and there'll be riots in the streets that would make last summer look like a night at the opera. Chop anything from the next two biggest spenders (Education & Health) and you'll hand the Opposition your gonads on a plate, electorally speaking.

Tell you what,we are going to make a few more cuts to your budgets here and there but don't worry about anything as we have had a chat with our friends in Euro LaLaLand and they said you might be able to borrow some of their toys.

If they're not playing with them.

And as long as it suits them.

Only at the weekends.

Alternate weekends.

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Where are the meaningful cuts in Defence now - Trident perhaps - but that's pretty much it.

The Welfare Budget (excl Health & Education, btw) is currently approx £220bn pa - about 1/3 of total Govt expenditure at FY 2010/11 prices. According to the OBR, at any rate - Office for Budget Responsibility

Chop anything off the welfare budget and there'll be riots in the streets that would make last summer look like a night at the opera. Chop anything from the next two biggest spenders (Education & Health) and you'll hand the Opposition your gonads on a plate, electorally speaking.

Difficult call, huh?

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If I were a political creature, I'd rather have the great unwashed rioting in the streets where they can be suppressed (assuming we still have police/soldiers etc), rather than have civil unrest from more motivated, intelligent and capable sections of society as is happening in Greece and Spain. I suspect that the underclass are about to discover how politically expendable they are but, as you say, no easy choices.

I'll treble the size of the army and the police. Then I'll slash the welfare budget to "just" 22 billion. Then I'll use the army and police to contain the riots using "robust" rules of engagement. Sorted.

The Welfare Budget (excl Health & Education, btw) is currently approx £220bn pa - about 1/3 of total Govt expenditure at FY 2010/11 prices. According to the OBR, at any rate - Office for Budget Responsibility

Difficult call, huh?

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Nothing new in politics is there? Bread and circuses AD 300 >> State Benefits 2012!

It doesn't matter what their (or any other party's) manifesto states, it'll be total bollox anyway. They'll do what they usually do & conveniently forget what they were voted in on & do more U turns than cameroon on speed..

It doesn't matter what their (or any other party's) manifesto states, it'll be total bollox anyway. They'll do what they usually do & conveniently forget what they were voted in on & do more U turns than cameroon on speed..

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I think the belief that politicians can avoid market forces indefinitely is being tested to destruction by the EU - and I think they'll find that they can't. Being rich gives the UK more time and flexibility but there is a limit - as it seems 'No need for cuts' Balls in 2010 has finally discovered in 2012.

Interestingly, if our politicians cut the BBC license fee and abandoned the MMGW cult with its consequent subsidies, that would release the thick end of four hundred quid per year per the majority of households into the economy, particularly to hard-pressed families.